Do people BRAG about not being able to read? About not having food on their table, a roof over their head, or proper education? Do they brag about dropping out of school in the fourth grade? Why, then do our elected officials somehow think it's "cool" not to have a clue about the internet, and not to directly participate? Oh sure, they're campaigns and their people may know enough to set up a MySpace or a fundraising page, but do you ever see them post to a message board, send an e-mail themselves, or respond directly to one of your questions? I'm sure it happens from time to time, but our Congress is still polluted with members who barely understand computers, let alone the internet, let further alone understanding the internet jungle the way its inhabitants do.
I will consider it a sign of human evolution when two candidates duke it out on a message board for the world to watch, unfettered by advisors, pollsters, lawyers, or anyone else who tells them to hide in the ivory tower because it pays to do so, as the voters reward filtered propaganda over a genuine, unrehearsed debate. A Congress full of scared, tech-illiterate members is a Congress that passes abominations like 47 USC ยง230, immunizing ISPs and search engines from defamation by their users, or the DMCA, which creates more confusion and lawsuits than it resolves, without really offering much protection to copyright holders.
I want my congressman (no offense to Chaka Fattah, my congressman, who is very technologically literate) to be someone who can e-mail me himself, without help, and who also knows that if he attaches a file, it should be a PDF rather than a ZIP or a DOC due to the virus potential. I want him to know what it's like to have an internet flame war over abortion with his opponent, and then I want him to wonder if an ISP really should be held blameless for allowing its users to defame him in the course of a campaign, or if Google should be allowed to archive it forever. Of course, when a CONGRESSMAN is defamed online, the ISPs and search engines are a bit more tepid at testing this immunity on the very people who can eliminate it; I want my congressman to understand that this privilege may make issues like Section 230 less important to him than to me, since he has natural defenses against it. Let him try to take down some YouTube video or remove pirating of his books while he's at it. Then, for fun, let him try to post to a message board where the website owner bans him, but allows his critics. That would be a candidate who understands the internet and who could write more appropriate laws governning it.
Candates who pretend to be "too cool for tech" are "too functionally illiterate to hold office" and should be voted out.
Ray Gordon is a write-in protest candidate for every elected office in the United States. He is also an internet publisher and medical transcriptionist. My Distinguished Colleagues appears every Thursday.
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